Surfdale Hall has been given to a private business, the Rudolf Steiner School, for at least two years, but in reality for as long as they want it. This means all ratepayer halls on Waiheke have now been taken away from the community by the Waiheke Local Board.

The final halls to fall into the hands of entities other than Council are the Ostend Community Hall and Surfdale Community Hall. Meanwhile, ratepayers will continue to pay for all the upkeep of the halls. Ostend Hall has been given to the RSA.

Surfdale Hall has a long history as a community facility. Like all other community funded halls it comes with a commercial kitchen, car parking for the community, a community garden, a playground and many other facilities used by the community for many years. I have hired the hall myself for a wake. All this is being given to a commercial entity, one that shares the Board’s Green philosophy, to profit from.

At this point the amount the business will pay to ‘hire’ Surfdale Hall is undetermined but if the $1 a year peppercorn rent given to the Waiheke Resources Trust, Waiheke Radio and Waiheke Adult Literacy is anything to go by ratepayers can rest assured they will be fleeced. Meanwhile, the community is locked out from using its own hall to make way for a business to make a profit.

It is also possible that not only will ratepayers fund the private business to make a profit, the Waiheke Board will give Rudolf Steiner School a grant to manage the building. This is the model the Board uses for the Old Library Space, Old Oneroa Bowling Club and Ostend Hall. This means that ratepayers fund gatekeeper groups chosen to ‘manage’ these halls. $30,000 was given to Waiheke Adult Literacy to ‘manage’ the old Library Space. Why it should cost ratepayers $30,000 to make a couple of bookings a year for other community groups to be allowed occasional access to their own building is unclear.

Ratepayers have, courtesy of the Waiheke Local Board, already funded the Waiheke Resources Trust to the tune of nearly $400,000. Add to that the $400,000 plus it cost ratepayers to refurbish the Old Bowling Club building it means that $1million of our money has been handed on a platter to an organisation with ties to the a local Green Party List MP.

The word being used around the community to describe the Waiheke Local Board is ‘corrupt’. It’s easy to see why.

Its not all bad.
The employees & managers of these subsidised businesses will have more disposable income to spend with businesses in the local economy.

Reply

Roger Hutton

2/6/2016 03:24:32 pm

So the WRT gets the lease on the old Oneroa Bowling Club for five years (with the right of renewal for a further five years) which will return a total of $5.00 to the Waiheke community.

For this sum you wouldn't even get a day's parking at Matiatia.

On top of that they will receive a subsidised maintenance fee courtesy of the Waiheke ratepayer of $1,000 per annum, totalling $5,000.00 over the initial 5 year lease.

Then there will no doubt be a 'management and booking fee' of $30,000 (just as Adult Literacy got for the old Library space) and this could also be granted on an annual basis over the 5 year term.

Not bad.

$155,000 of ratepayer money for an outlay of $5.

But then WRT have decided that in return for this generous handout that "The workshop and kitchen area will be available for the community to hire out at a small charge".

Why? Because they feel the community should get space due to the increased prices of community halls (read workshops and kitchens) over recent years.

And that's the catch.

You'll only get access to the workshop and kitchen.

And that's only if WRT, the Hauraki Gulf Conservation Trust, any other environmental group, Sculpture on the Gulf, the Waiheke Walking Festival and the toy library don't require them.

What right do WRT have to charge the public for the use of a building the public already own.

They are calling it a sustainability centre.

When you look at the deal it's sustainable alright.

But that's only to WRT.

The rest of us are the idiots paying for it!

Reply

Roger Hutton

2/6/2016 10:56:04 pm

Something's fishy!

The local board have given $24,000 to the Hauraki Gulf Conservation Trust so that it can employ marine biologists to investigate areas for potential marine reserves and an area for a set net ban.

The first phase will be carried out this month and will cost $12,000.

The second phase will also cost $12,000.

The research will result in a report and a brochure. These do not appear to be covered within the $24,000 budget so additional monies will need to be set aside.

It is planned to present the report and brochure to the community by May 2017.

But why is this research being carried out at all?

Paul Walden is aware that Sea Change-Tai Timu Tai Pari, a partnership involving mana whenua (local Māori who have customary authority over the area), Auckland Council, Waikato Regional Council, the Department of Conservation, Ministry for Primary Industries and Hauraki Gulf Forum has been working on a marine spatial planning initiative designed to produce a Marine Spatial Plan since 2013.

Walden is concerned that this plan may not recommend any marine reserves.

That instead they could recommend that a percentage of the gulf be set aside as marine reserves without identifying suitable areas.

Walden hopes that Sea Change might be able to include some of the local board's reserve proposals in its marine spatial plan.

How does he see this happening?

Sea Change will present their report this year. The local board's report won't be ready until next year.

It seems a little bit fishy. Especially when the local board have already predetermined the areas they want set aside as marine reserves and no-go zone for set nets.

Firstly, couldn't Walden have contacted Sea Change, discussed with them the local board's proposals and left them to get on with the job they were appointed to do.

Secondly, why can't he wait until he sees what Sea Change recommend in their report.

There is no reason at all for wasting $24,000 of ratepayer's money simply because he doesn't think they'll give him the answer he wants.

Reply

Ian Andrews

6/6/2016 06:51:35 pm

I and many others were involved in getting the Surfdale Hall back in 1990 . It was a surplus community hall from Northcote and it was refurbished by Surfdale volunteers as a community hall and youth dropin centre . Halls like this are part of the community fabric on Waiheke . I can't see the need for a gatekeeper group to manage the Surfdale hall .